Science Report published on use of data science in the FSA

Last updated:

5 April 2017

The FSA published a new Science Report by its Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Guy Poppy today. In his sixth Science Report, Professor Poppy looks at data science and how it is helping the Agency to achieve its core objective of becoming a data driven organisation.

Professor Poppy said: ‘For the FSA to make evidence-based decisions, data must be translated into the knowledge and wisdom we can act upon. The revolution in data science techniques is making the large amounts of data collected by the FSA and food businesses more valuable and ensures the best decisions can be made.’

The report shows how the Agency is bringing together a wide range of data, from the complex food industry ‘ecosystem’ to social media and consumer preferences, to explore ways that it can meet its regulatory responsibilities going forward and become data-driven. This also includes working in partnership on research with University College London’s Big Data Institute and the Office for National Statistics amongst others, to get the best value from data as well as supporting FSA objectives and learning with and from others. Data Science is feeding into the implementation of the Agency’s innovative new Surveillance Strategy and the ‘Regulating our Future’ change programme which is redesigning the FSA’s regulatory role.